We – the strategic planning Design Team – were talking through the upcoming strategic planning retreat agenda.

Karl (not his real name), the Board President, thought that only board members should attend the retreat and participate. There were three board members on the call – and three staff members, who were suddenly “uninvited” to the upcoming retreat.

It felt like we were talking about planning a party – but not inviting everyone doing the planning!

Ouch.

It was awkward.

The Ross Collective leads inclusive, participatory strategic planning processes.

Organizations reach out to us and hire us because they want to build a plan in which members of the team – staff and board – participate in planning so that they feel a sense of ownership over the plan.

Karl’s comment missed something vital. Participation matters.

And as the consultant, it was my job to explain to Karl that the staff should participate – without calling him out or embarrassing him. I let Karl know that the organizations we work with include board and staff in the strategic planning retreat so that this group can build the vision for the work together. I shared that, for an inclusive strategic planning process, board and staff members should be attending the retreat. Other staff members chimed in to share that this had also been the practice at the retreats that they had attended with other organizations.

People are confused.

Karl is hardly the only one expressing confusion about participation in strategic planning. Almost every time we talk about strategic planning, clients or potential clients ask us who should participate.

Who should participate?

Like so many things in your organization, participation in planning goes back to values.

As you think about who should participate in planning, think about two questions:

1.   Who holds the vision for the direction of your organization?

Who is looking at community needs, future and current trends, and anticipated funding to determine what the organization should do next – or should stop doing?

Those people and representatives of those people need to be in the room for planning.

If you want to build an equitable plan, you need to make sure that the people closest to the problems are weighing in on the solutions.

2.   Who holds the work of the organization?

Vision and execution need to meet more often. 😊

It is not meaningful to make plans without checking with the people who are going to do the work to find out if those plans are realistic.

Without this step, creating a strategic plan becomes a game of telephone – in which staff members receive the words of the plan from the board but miss the thinking behind this strategy.

And this is a recipe for an irrelevant plan!

Especially at this moment in which staff recruitment and retention is challenging, it is so much more meaningful to get everyone in the room together weighing in on what is going to happen next.

 

So what happened with Karl?

In the planning meeting, Karl listened. He was flexible and open. He shared that he had not been aware of the importance of staff participation.

The whole board participated in the retreat as well as the staff leadership team of the organization.

This group had never sat together to listen to one another in this way. Together, the group created priorities for the organization’s work over the next few years that became the blueprint for what would happen next.

 

At the end of the daylong retreat, Dave, the Executive Director, became emotional.

For the past few years, he had the lonely and isolating job of communicating with the board sometimes and communicating with the staff sometimes. But these two groups had not heard from each other directly!

Something deep changed that day.

Everyone in the room – not just Dave—now felt ownership over all parts of the organization’s future – the successes and the challenges. There was transparency and connection.

This is the power of an inclusive, participatory process!

The Ross Collective leads these processes for organizations all over the United States. We have years of experience guiding these conversations so they can be participatory and engaging. We are here to help work through difficult situations. Like Dave’s experience at this particular retreat, we are often able to create monumental outcomes for individuals and organizations. Sometimes, all it takes is getting everyone in the room to work together in finding solutions.

Reach out if you would like to learn more!